Local government representatives have told MPs on Parliament’s Environmental Audit Committee that they want more ambitious targets air quality and the resources and powers to achieve them.
The Government has committed to achieving World Health Organisation clean air targets by 2040 rather than 2030 as demanded by medical experts.
Environment secretary Thérèse Coffey said: ‘With the best will in the world we cannot achieve that everywhere by the end of the decade.'
The chair of London Councils’ Environment Committee, Deidre Costigan, said funding reform and more effective enforcement powers, including against polluting industries, would make the 2030 target possible.
She said: ‘If we had that funding and those powers, we could do it. We want to do it.'
Essex CC climate Tsar Peter Schwier, also appearing before the committee, added: 'A high standard to aim for is potentially to the benefit not just in Essex but for all of us in the long term.
‘We can have a universal standard that everyone can work to.’
The chair of the Local Government Association’s net zero board, Darren Rodwell, said the sector lacked expertise in air quality and funding needed to be long-term.
He added: ‘Local authorities have been forced to chase the money and that doesn’t give us the outcome we need nationally.
‘We’ve got to be judged fairly with the resources we have in the situation we find ourselves in.’
Cllr Rodwell also rejected claims that measures such as London’s controversial Ultra Low Emission Zone were designed for revenue generation.
He told MPs: ‘Our goal is certainly not to make money. Our goal is to improve people’s lives and give them choice.
‘The public don't understand what we are trying to achieve because it is an invisible killer, but it’s still important we try to achieve it.’
This story first appeared on themj.co.uk.
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